Margo Okazawa-Rey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Margo Okazawa-Rey
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| Born | November 26, 1949 |
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Margo Okazawa-Rey was born in Japan on November 26, 1949. She is an American professor, writer, and activist. She is known for helping start the Combahee River Collective. She also works to support women's rights around the world.
Margo Okazawa-Rey studies how military actions and the global economy are connected. She also looks at challenges faced by communities of color. Her work helps make women safer everywhere.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Margo Okazawa-Rey was born in Kobe, Japan. Her father was African-American and her mother was Japanese. She moved to the United States when she was ten years old. Her mixed heritage helped her understand how important it is to work against war.
She earned her first degree, a B.A., in Sociology in 1973. This was from Capital University. In 1974, she received her M.S.S. from Boston University School of Social Work. Later, in 1987, she earned her Ed.D. from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Margo Okazawa-Rey's Career
Teaching and Social Work
Margo Okazawa-Rey is a professor emerita at San Francisco State University. This means she is a retired professor who still holds her title. She also taught at Fielding Graduate University.
From 1974 to 1982, she worked as a social worker. She helped people in Dorchester and Roxbury, Massachusetts. During this time, she also helped create CARE. This group worked for anti-racist education.
She taught at many universities from 1979 to 2003. These included New Hampshire College and Simmons College. She was also a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Later, she became a professor at San Francisco State University.
Margo Okazawa-Rey held special teaching positions at Hamilton College. She was the Jane Watson Irwin Chair from 1999 to 2001. She returned as the Elihu Root Chair in Women's Studies from 2014 to 2016.
From 2002 to 2005, she directed the Women's Leadership Institute at Mills College. She also taught social policy there. She helped create a special teaching position named after Barbara Lee. Margo Okazawa-Rey held this position herself from 2010 to 2011 and again from 2018 to 2019.
Research and Activism
Margo Okazawa-Rey was a founding member of the Combahee River Collective. This group started in the mid-1970s. Being part of this group shaped her studies and activism. She used the idea of "intersectionality" in her work. This means understanding how different parts of a person's identity, like race and gender, connect.
She focused on how military actions can lead to violence against women. She also studied conflicts between different ethnic groups. She helped organize "Women Redefining Security" conferences. These events took place in Okinawa, Washington, D.C., and Seoul, Korea.
Her research looked at how military presence and the global economy affect women. She studied women living near U.S. military bases in South Korea.
In 1978, she co-wrote "A Black Feminist Statement" with the Combahee River Collective. This was an important document for Black feminism.
In 1994, she received a Fulbright Program grant to study in South Korea. She was interested in how different minority groups in the U.S. viewed each other. She wanted to learn what Koreans knew about African Americans. While in South Korea, she saw the U.S. military presence. She also learned about the history of Japanese rule in Korea. She realized how military actions connect to race and gender issues.
In 1997, she helped start a network of women against U.S. militarism. This group grew into the International Women's Network Against Militarism.
She works with international groups for social justice. She is on the board of "PeaceWomen Across the Globe" in Switzerland. She also works with "Du Re Bang" (My Sister's Place) in South Korea. She was a research consultant in Palestine for three years.
Margo Okazawa-Rey also studied the effects of conflict in parts of Africa. She looked at how feminist research can help women. She connects foreign policy to issues at home. For example, she studies how military spending affects young people in American communities.
She has shared her knowledge at many universities. These include Yale University and Brown University.
Personal Life
Margo Okazawa-Rey was one of many Black scholars who supported Bernie Sanders. This was during the 2020 Democratic Party presidential elections.
Awards and Recognitions
- Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in 1994.
- Social Science Research Council Grant in 1996.
- Jane Watson Irwin Distinguished Chair in Women's Studies at Hamilton College, from 1999 to 2001.
- Feminist Activist Scholar in Residence at Scripps College in 2006.
- Distinguished Fellow in Research Justice at Mills College from 2013-2014.
- Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership at Mills College from 2008-2009 and 2018-2019.
- Received Lasting Legacy Award at the Words of Fire Conference at Spelman College in 2017.
